Every great story has a beginning and for Cristiano Ronaldo, it came on a memorable October night at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in Lisbon back in 2002.
That was the night Ronaldo announced himself as a star in the making, aged just 17, with a match-winning brace for Sporting that encapsulated the Portuguese’s impressive attributes while offering a glimpse of the skill set that would come to define his career; the dizzying pace and dribbling coupled with the ruthless finishing of a generational striker.
Ronaldo had made his debut just over a week earlier, coming on as a substitute for Marius Niculae with 20 minutes to go and Sporting already trailing 4-2 to hosts Braga.
Manager Laszlo Boloni had guided the club to a memorable Primeira Liga and Taca de Portugal double the previous year but Sporting made a sluggish start to the season with the Braga defeat leaving them languishing in 12th.
Boloni would ultimately depart the following summer after a campaign that saw the defending champions finish 27 points off Porto, but his final 12 months in the job were not a complete bust.
Despite a disappointing title defence, a result of the injuries and inconsistency suffered by star striker Mario Jardel as well as Porto’s imperious form under their promising young manager Jose Mourinho, the Romanian coach was still able to blood several exciting young talents.
Boloni already had a track record for giving youth a chance at the club, with the most notably beneficiary being Hugo Viana, who had played a key role in Sporting’s double-winning success, earning the midfielder the Young European Footballer of the Year award along with a lucrative move to Newcastle United in the process.
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READ: Hugo Viana on turning down Liverpool for Sir Bobby & life at Newcastle
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A year later, it was the turn of Ronaldo and another rising young star and fellow winger in the Sporting ranks, Ricardo Quaresma, to take centre stage.
Against Braga, Boloni had kept the handbrake on with Ronaldo left on the bench while Quaresma was deployed in an unfamiliar wingback role. However, when it came time to face Moreirense a week later, he threw caution to the wind.
This time around both Ronaldo and Quaresma were picked to start on either flank to add a little youthful zest to the Sporting attack.
Though neither Quaresma nor Ronaldo had any involvement in Belarusian striker Vitali Kutuzonov’s opener on 31 minutes, the man colloquially known as CR7 was a constant…
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